Good evening everyone



We also made the trip to Othello on Saturday.? Unlike some others we found what I can only estimate to be thousands of sandhill cranes.? We took Frenchman Hills Rd.?east from I-90 toward birders corner.? We saw one large flock of cranes in?a corn field and figured we would see more along the way.? We?then paralleled?Frenchman Hills road to the north and ended up at Adams and 6th where we found what must have been the main flock.? We pulled off on a freshly graveled road just north of another corn field.? There were a few cranes?in the field?but the major flock flew over our heads and landed just at the end of the short gravel road.? What we guessed to be many thousands of birds landed in the private property.? It was quite a treat to the ears listening to them all come in and land in the distance.? The birds came in wave after wave - we didn't see anyone else in that area watching which surprised us.? After all it's kind of hard to hide that many loud noisy birds!? People should have seen them from miles around.



We stopped at birders corner but didn't see too much there.? We saw a couple of shorebirds in the distance but we couldn't make them out.? We saw the usual suspects there - I really wanted to see the black necked stilts but I guess it's just a bit too early for them.? We made a few other short stops here and there and found a few sparrows and house finches.? We did see one shrike but it few off before we could ID it.



We drove thru the Potholes but didn't see to much in that area except an ample amount of dust.? As we came out to the Para Homestead but they had just burned the cat tails so we didn't see many red-winged black birds?and we didn't see any ?tri-colored.? We then made the necessary trip to see the burrowing owls!? They didn't disappoint us - it appears from the road that there are several borrows this year.



We then made a trip to the Othello cemetery to find the great horned owls.? I want to thank who ever showed us where the male was.? We didn't see or hear the female but we think we found the nest but we didn't see anything in it.? It was a different tree than last year - but I'm sure it's there someplace.



We decided to head toward home and went out along Corfu . We didn't see a single crane in the entire area.? There were a few hawks and ducks but no cranes.? We did stop at a marsh on "B" and found a rather large flock of yellow-headed blackbirds.? They were about a half mile or so south of hwy 26 on "B".? So it's a good bet that they will still be there for anyone traveling over to the festival.



Our last stop was the great horned owl nest in Ellensburg on Recer Creek Rd.? She's in the same nest as last year - I'm sure she has babies by now because she's sitting much higher in the nest than she was a couple of weeks ago.? Unfortunately she didn't let us see them.? We'll head over there in a few weeks and take a quick look again.



Have a good time if you go to the festival!





Thanks for reading

D. Lewis

North Bend, Wa

debsstuffatcomcastdot net